I've written about the LuMee before, but decided I wanted to try one out for myself. Admittedly, I'm lacking in the selfie game, but my fascination with this case is that it means to solve an actual modern problem. People take selfies in bars, clubs, or in the summertime outside and at night in general.

While the front-facing camera on all smartphones has improved significantly over the years, low-light performance will continue to be a problem. It's not the phone makers' fault either; cameras of all shapes and sizes perform better the more light is available. The LuMee case wants to provide that light by building two strips of LED lights into the sides of a case, and it works.

Physically, the LuMee is about as large as a typical battery case; that makes sense because its LED lights run on battery power. The case itself can be recharged through a microUSB port. While it definitely made my iPhone 6 Plus a two-hands-only device, it's not overly bulky. And while it doesn't protect your screen at all, it does protect the back and corners very well.

The LuMee is pretty smart about how it handles illumination. You turn its lights on by pushing a button on the case's back, and if you hold that button, you can adjust its brightness. That's a good feature, because, at its brightest, the LuMee's light is very intense. If can be a little jarring if you're not expecting it, but giving off very bright light is kind of the point of the case. Once I realized how bright it could get, I adjusted the LuMee to my desired brightness and took a few snaps.

My non-LuMmee'd picture looked the worst, with tons of noticeable noise and grain. Some of those same artifacts were present in my full-brightness photo, but I was testing it out in a room with no light. In a bar, or outside, there's a fair chance you'll have some light around and that will impact your picture.

LuMee

I said at the top that I'm not a huge selfie-taker, and the LuMee isn't going to change that. That said, it has impacted the way I think about iPhone cases. Until now I've always had a single, svelte, clear case. But I could see myself swapping it in favor of the LuMee when I know I'm going out with a group of friends.

Its extra bulk and the fact that I don't take selfies on a daily basis means it's never going to be my day-to-day case, but the LuMee does its job so well that I'm happy to use it when it's appropriate.

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